Pumpkin Spice Cake

Easy1 hour

This Pumpkin Spice Cake is everything you love about pumpkin desserts — it is perfectly cinnamon-y and pumpkin spiced, it is wonderfully moist, and it is topped with a heavenly cream cheese glaze. Believe it. Then try it. :)

I used to start baking with pumpkin in October.

Then last year it inched into mid-September.

But this year, as soon as the calendar flipped to September 1, I marched into the grocery store and bought a dozen cans of pumpkin. Call me eager, call me impatient, call me paranoid about a pumpkin shortage (after 2 years ago), or call me brilliant.

The simple truth is — I love pumpkin!!!

And what better way to kick off the season this year than with this delicious Pumpkin Spice Cake.

This cake reminded me of all the many things I adore about baking with pumpkin. Shall I make a list?

1) Minutes after going in the oven, my house started to smell a-mazing.

You know how everyone is Instagramming their favorite pumpkin spice candles right now? Yeah, I own a few of those too. But none compare to the heavenly smell of a pumpkin bundt cake slowly baking in your oven. And then that same smell lingering for days to come. It’s the best!!!

2) Taste-testers appear from nowhere!

Speaking of Instagram, when I posed a photo of this cake fresh out of the oven, my phone filled up with a record number of offers for taste-testing. I forgot how even the pickiest of eaters absolutely adore all things pumpkin. It’s a good thing that I ended up making this cake twice for taste-testing, because there was a line!!

3) Pumpkin instantly makes it feel like Fall.

We may be in the middle of a ridiculous 100+ degree heat wave. And my air conditioner may have decided to break down and take two days (twooooo dayyyyyys) to fix, making it nearly possible to bake this cake in the “oven” that is my loft. And freaking pumpkins may have not hit the stores yet, causing me to pull out some old decor from storage for this photo shoot. (Yeah, don’t look too closely, although now I’m sure you will — the Hobby Lobby special!) But regardless of it all, taking a first bite of this pumpkin spice cake made the world instantly feel like September and Fall and all of the cozy memories the season brings. Love it.

So if you’re ready for a delicious recipe to kick off your pumpkin baking season, or if you’re just ready to enjoy a fabulous pumpkin bundt cake any time of the year, this cake has my full pumpkin-loving recommendation.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

This delicious pumpkin spice cake is topped with a rich cream cheese glaze that will have you cheering for pumpkin!

Prep:10 minsCook:50 minsTotal:1 hour

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Spice Cake Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves (optional)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree

3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

Cream Cheese Glaze Ingredients:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar (plus extra if needed)

1-2 Tbsp. milk

Directions:

To Make The Pumpkin Spice Cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a bundt pan with cooking spray or butter, then sprinkle the entire surface with flour (or granulated sugar) and shake off the excess.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves (optional), and salt until combined. Then in a separate bowl, stir together pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla until combined.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and beat 1 minute, using a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl so that everything is combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth. Do not overbeat.

Transfer batter into pan, and smooth the top of the batter with a spatula so that it is smooth. Bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a cooking rack for at least 20 minutes. Then invert cake onto a cooling rack or a cake platter. Top with cream cheese glaze when cooled, or dust with powdered sugar.

To Make The Cream Cheese Glaze:

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar together on medium low speed until combined. Add milk one tablespoon at a time, beating to combine, until the glaze reaches your desired consistency. If the glaze gets too thin, add in more powdered sugar.

This cake is gorgeous! I love how thick and luscious the frosting looks. I was baking with pumpkin at 100°+ temperatures too, recently, but the heavenly aroma really does make it feel like fall! Pinned!

Seriously drooling. Ali, I am in love with pumpkin desserts. My aching for pumpkin treats started early this year too! Must be the cooler weather we’ve been having. Regardless, this cake is drop dead gorgeous and I am dying for a slice right now!

This is such a beautiful cake!! I try to wait as long as possible for pumpkin, but I had my first pumpkin spice latte today. Don’t regret it, but it’s supposed to be 91 degrees tomorrow in Boston. Hello, summer :)

I made this and brougt it along on my end of summer glamping trip this weekend. Loved the pumpkin, but the glaze really stood out. We inhaled it for breakfast both mornings, but luckily there was one slice left to bring to work for breakfast this morning. Another great recipe!

I made this cake on Thursday, Sept 19. By Monday, the 23, it was super moist and by Tuesday it was inedible – so so soggy. Like pudding sort of. It was very strange and I had to throw about a quarter of the cake out. (I was keeping it at room temp.)

That said, this cake is DELICIOUS! I really went crazy for it. Such good, deep fall flavors. Yum. I was so disappointed to have to toss it, but the mouthfeel was just.. shudder. So stranger. And it developed a real vegetal flavor too. So I would just warn people that this has a short shelf life! It was really good for 3-4 days and then went downhill fast after that.

If you want it to last longer, don’t ice it, just put icing on each piece as you serve it. I make a lemon cake with lemon icing that has cream cheese as a base, if I want the cake to last several days, I can keep the cake in a cake taker on the counter and keep the icing in a bowl in the fridge, to serve I just plop a spoonful of the icing on top of each slice and it is as good as the day I made it. Cream cheese icing will definitely make a cake soggy within a few days if it is iced completely the day it’s made.

This is a great recipe! I made it for the first time ever this past weekend (for my husband’s family get-together) and everyone RAVED about it. It was fantastic! Definitely a hit that I will be making again.

I made the cake using a 9×13 inch glass pan and it turned out great. I omitted the frosting to cut calories and I have to say that my family loves it just the way it is. Thank you for such a lovely pumpkin recipe.

I have been making pumpkin stuff for a few weeks now!! I love it!! I have made several loaves of the pumpkin beer bread (with pumpkin ale). This cake is next!! I give a lot of stuff away to friends — they always love it when I am cooking!!
Love your website!!!

Made this for dessert tonight, and it was wonderful! I’m not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, so I did a spice glaze instead, but the cake itself was fluffy, soft, and delicious! I will definitely be making it again.

Hi Ali – I’m working on a Thanksgiving dessert recipe roundup for my blog and I’d love to include your Pumpkin Spice Cake. (You can see an example of one of my roundups here:http://www.leavesandstitches.com/weekend-pinspiration-shade-garden/). Would you mind if I include your recipe? I’d include your photo and a link back to your post.

Hey, I’m Ali!

And I’m so happy you’re here!! So many of my favorite memories in life have taken place around the table, especially when surrounded by those I love, and all the better when nourished by delicious food we love that we can savor together. So I created this site to share my favorite recipes with you, sprinkled with stories on navigating this crazy, chaotic and beautiful thing we call life. So take a minute to poke around the site, and I hope you find something inspiring to make your day a little extra delicious and meaningful. Cheers, friends! more about me »